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Tuesday is Darby’s birthday. She is 3 years old. Darby even looks like a little grown-up puppy. I’ve not knit her another sweater yet but I was thinking maybe I would use some of the grey yarn I have to knit her one that looks like an armadillo. Little ridges, some short rows, maybe even flat so people who don’t knit in the round can do it. OR I will make her a Charlie Brown sweater, the yellow with black chevron pattern on it.

Here she is enjoying her personal rug in front of the fireplace.

I have finished up the baby sweater I was working on in the last post. It’s pretty awesome, but the applique needs to be sewn on. It’s supposed to be an iron on patch and I did that but it seems a little loose.

It's my rockabilly punk baby sweater

Currently I am still working on socks, a hat or two for charity and enjoying my week off. have a happy Thanksgiving!

Oh yeah! Tomorrow is also my 1 year anniversary with this guy!

We’ve been dating for a whole year. I haven’t been in a relationship this long in a while. I like him, he makes me laugh, makes me feel good, makes me feel pretty, and is a sweetheart. If I could I would get every girl a guy like him for Christmas.

I took Darby to get her nails trimmed and lo and behold! Puppy pirate costume hats for Halloween. Naturally they were too large for Darby, but that certainly didn’t prevent me from taking a pic of her.

Darby is a Pirate

Also, the double pane glass window in my classroom was broken when someone tried to break in last year. So there is only one pane of glass instead of two and the heat that comes through is intense in the morning. I am putting up a stained glass window of tape and tissue paper. It’s coming along quite well this time, as this is the second attempt. if I like it I may turn it into an assignment for the kids to do in other classrooms.

I’m waiting for my sister to get her b-day present so that I can post pictures of it here. Also, the dog sweater is nearly finished, i just need to do the under ruffle and some embellishments. I’m knitting something for my sister also, but it is so far from finished she’ll be lucky to get it by Christmas. I can say knitting with thread and needles as thick as toothpicks is incredibly hard.

I want to knit Darby a pirate costume for Halloween. That would be supremely awesome!

All righty people. As promised, a contest for my 100th post. I pondered and thought and waited to find goodies to give some lucky person. I didn’t want to give away yarn, because I don’t want someone to go “oh, I don’t use wool/sock yarn/whatever” So I present these offerings instead. A copy of the most important knitting book in my life “Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair” by Crazy Aunt Purl, the book “Zen and the Art of Knitting” by, a BSJ in 1 year old size, a matching lace edge hat in ladies medium, and whatever little goodies I toss in there to surprise you with.

knitting contest goodies!

In order to enter, you just have to leave me a comment on the bottom and either link it back to your website or put your e-mail in when it asks for it (that part is for non-wordpress users). I’ll use the random number generator to pick a number….or strew numbers all over the floor and pick the one darby tries to steal and hide under the bed.

So, why did it take me so long to make this post, dear contest interested knitting friends…. Well, I tend to not pay attention when I walk…and I wear glasses…at the same time. So I was walking down the stairs (dangerous) and texting at the same time (brilliant), missed the bottom stair entirely, landed on my right ankle…all one hundred and (double cough) pounds of me. So, I hobbled upstairs, iced it, and waited till morning when I discovered that walking was a very bad idea. Of course, I don’t want to have to request a sub in the first 2 weeks of school, and I’ve been popular at the er as is (making them get rid of my ulcers y’all. Feeling way better) and so I hobbled to school, tormented students with art education while trying to sit as much as possible, went to my lame art meeting and hobbled home. Now the side of my ankle had swelled up to about the size and shape of half a tennis ball, but purpley-green, and i was more that a little concerned. So I went in to the doc today, tho declared it a sprain. btw, I may have thick ankles (sigh) but I have some nice looking bones.

Today, i was trying to get the heck out and to the doc on time and I hear a kid crying like crazy outside my classroom. I go out there and its one of our teachers kids, he hit his face on the table or chair in her room and was bleeding everywhere! I ran in, tore my classroom apart looking for paper towels which, naturally, couldn’t be found. He was still balling outside, i grab some cottonballs (why i have those and not paper towels, who knows) and give them to him, being verrry careful not to get blood on me, walk him (very slowly) up to the office, through throngs of kids who shriek at the sight of him, and get him up to the office and find his mom. The poor sweetie. Any who, apparently he’s prone to nosebleeds and was clotting already and I ran like mad to find…a locked gate…ran back, borrowed a student to open and close the gate, and booked it to my appointment. Wow, a bonkers day.

………….and now for some adorable Darby pics…because we all need to see cute pics of the Darby dog.

Darby!!

more darby!!

more extra long Darby tongue

Darby is adorable........I'm just reminding you.

All righty, comment away! Whoohoo! The contest ends next Wednesday (August 13th, so a week from today).

I’m still sick, but this is a story that needs to be told, cause it’s over now. I was at my friend Jen’s house last night with Darby (my chihuahua) and we decided to go out for dinner. Since Darby chewed through one of her babygates we just left her to roam in the house with Jen’s cat and border collie. We get home and DARBY”S NOT THERE! So we look all through the house and finally Jen asks me “could she get out through this?” indicating a low window she keeps open a couple inches so the cat can go in and out.
It was probably a foot and a half or two foot drop on the outside of the window, enough to make Darby think about it, but no further than from the bed to the floor. That was how we knew she went outside. For the next hour and a half we were walking around, looking in peoples backyards and calling for Darby. Finally, probably 11pm or so, I headed home. Jen’s boyfriend kept looking for like another 2 or 3 hours (good man) and I drove around for probably another half hour making sure she hadn’t been run over on one of the main roads around her house.
Now, I’m not a religious person ordinarily, but seriously, I was liker “Please God, let someone find my dog and bring her back” because the last thing I wanted was for her to be killed by a mean dog or run over or have people take her and sell her off.
This morning I got up an hour early to meet Jen at the school so that we can make flyers and paper the neighborhood. I’m in the bathroom brushing my teeth and I hear my phone ringing faintly (I can’t hear still, cause I’m so damn sick even my ears aren’t working). It’s Jen. She went out this morning on her front porch and called for Darby, who walked right up, followed by a kitty of the same color.
So that’s my story. 5 hours of fitful sleep, anxiety, and freaking out, and Darby just walks right back up. I cried, I was so happy and relieved. Now she’s curled up under the covers, she’s had her fill of food and water and is just as content as can be.

I got Darby from Linda one year ago this week. How do I know? Because it was Valentines weekend. So, in addition to a FINISHED PROJECT, I present you all with pictures of my most adorable puppy! Aww, puppy love.

Here is a ball of yarn being taste-tested by Darby.

I’m trying to get her to model and as you can see she isn’t thrilled.

Here she is terrorizing my new scarf…

….this makes her much happier. Darby loves handknits, she likes to dig in them, bury her face in them yarny goodness, and roll around, shedding all over them. She’s adorable and I love her.

Okay, I’m going to talk about knitting first, because you knitters out there shouldn’t have to slog through 2 paragraphs of dating nonsense to read about my knitting projects. I am STILL working on the Baby Surprise Jacket. I have once again messed up. I put markers in orange to indicate the front and blue for the back. Then I forgot which was which. Then somewhere I ended up with 4 extra stitches and did 20 minutes of knit-math to figure out how to do extra decreases so I wouldn’t have to frog yet again.

What you can’t see is my little notebook under the knitting, where I cross off each row when I finish it, and have all these little math bits to solve the “too many stitches” problem. I’m hoping to have this finished before I’m 30. which only gives me….lets see….1 year and 8 months. I thought this was supposed to be quick.

In Darby news, she is fine ya’all. I know thats why you check my blog. I took some pictures of her asleep on the bed, but they are all dark and my bed doesn’t look particularly stylish (she’s asleep on a purple sheet that needs to be put away and an afghan all on top of a brown paisley duvet, all poorly lit, you can imagine how less-than-impressive it is). So here she is being adorable and trying to convince me to play with her, while I’m trying to pluck my eyebrows in the bathroom. Guess which won, the eyebrows or the pup.

The pup always wins.

So I have a free membership to match.com. It’s because I was on there for 9 months and while I did meet Pilot, I never was able to establish a serious relationship (the kind that leads to marriage and babies). So, after complaining to my brother that all the men who are interested in me are So-Cal Faire geeks I went ahead and used my free 6 month membership. Maybe because I’ve had a year to get over my ex dumping me (it’s really been that long!) or maybe its because I live in California again, but I actually met guys I was interested in (2 or 3 anyway). No more dates where he talks about how smart he is, or dates where food is launched across the table on to me, no more dates where the date is sweating profusely and shaking like a leaf (unless you count me, but I do it in the car so they can’t see it…I’m all sorts of confident when I walk in the door). Thats right, more or less real dates.

So, now that I’ve met someone and we have decided to date only each other (honestly, it makes me a little nervous, it’s like a real relationship and I haven’t been in one in a goodly while) I’m on match telling the rest of the boys that I’m not available any more. I go onto a chat function to let the college kid know, figuring he wouldn’t mind seeing as how he has chickened out on our last 2 dates, and he’s upset! Saying he was going to drive down and suprise me with chocolates! I want to believe him, but seriously, he never called me and when I texted him (twice) he thought I was someone else. So, while he’s making me feel bad (cause I didn’t let on that I was seeing other people) I’m also wondering if he’s full of shit, because our only date was like 3 weeks ago and he never arranged a second date. So you tell me, all you knitters out there, whats the deal?

Oh yeah, and I have a boyfriend. I feel like I’m 14 years old again saying that. I told my ex today that I’m seeing someone. He was agog, nearest I can tell. he asked how i was doing, harassing all the boys in Stockton and I told him there was just one. He really was surprised, I think. I mean, we don’t hardly even talk anymore, but it is weird to hear about each other moving on with our lives.

So, new boyfriend (heehee) will thusly be known as “E” or, more likely, “New Boyfriend (Heehee)”. I like him. He’s very calm and funny and nice. It’s all very exciting…and terrifying (Heehee).